Paul Ryan: Women ‘mostly worried’ about jobs

NBC’s Brian Williams spoke with Mitt Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. When asked about Republican platforms on abortion and whether or not there should be exceptions for rape or incest, Ryan said most women are asking about economic growth and the education of their children.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>>a short time ago
paul ryan
stopped by our studio here above the floor and talked some more about our speech to the group last night. a lot of your speech was devoted to leadership.

>>right.

>>that could also be construed as ownership. are you prepared to leave this gathering and own the fact that the platform of this party allows a woman who has been raped no exception but to carry that child to term?

>>well, i think the platform is silent on that particular issue.
mitt romney
had a position on this. the
president of the united states
set the policy and
mitt romney
's position is that there are exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother.

>>there is no exception in the platform.

>>i think the platform is silent one way or the other on that. the platform which i think is a great document. i'm proud of the platform. it's something produced by the delegates and the
president of the united states
sets policy on this issue.
mitt romney
's policy is well known.

>>i ask about this because it's the third cycle now where there is a disconnect between the platform and the candidate running. in a business where you and your opponent are trying to attract especially suburban women, does it send the right message?

>>you know what i think suburban women are mostly worried about is jobs. look who got hit hardest in this economy? it's women. poverty among women is at a 17-year high. women are worried about education of their children,
economic growth
and opportunity, worried about the fact we're mortgaging their kids' futures. so that's what most women are asking us about.

>>on the gm plant i know the plant is a
big deal
. famously, however,
mitt romney
, the son of
detroit
, had a choice and said that he disagreed with efforts to prop up the domestic
auto industry
. that would have saved the plant in your local town.

>>well, i think really what got the plant was $4 gas, the
energy policy
. that predates the obama years. we need a better
energy policy
in this country. but what
mitt romney
has said is he didn't say no support for
detroit
. he said that
detroit
should go through a managed bankruptcy and on the back end of that bankruptcy after restructuring then they should get support.

>>but there was no money, no managed bankruptcy. it wasn't in the realm of possibility.

>>we had a political bankruptcy and what happened was the obama administration put themselves in the position to pick winners and losers. i don't think that was one in keeping with the rule of law. the point about the plant in my hometown,
president obama
came there and campaigned in the plant in
2008
. he said, this plant will be here for another hundred years. he got elected. he put his policies in place. the plant is empty. nobody works there anymore.

>>tell us about tonight's speech.

>>it's going to be a speech where
mitt romney
picks up where we left off and says, here's how we're going to get people back to work. here are my plans for getting higher take home pay, more jobs. we got to get this debt under control. it's going to take leadership. it's going to take an executive leadership and he had those kind of skills. it's also going to be a speech where people get to know the man
mitt romney
better. i wish people had the opportunity to meet him like i know him because i really believe they'll see the qualities, decency, goodness in this person and what
mitt romney
is going to do is show himself, who he is, the kind of care he has, what motivates him to the country i think he'll be leading in january.

>>with due respect he has been running for six years. why don't we know him?